1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system including a printing apparatus that performs printing in accordance with a printing instruction from an information processing apparatus, and a control method for the printing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are cases where a printing apparatus supports many types of media (recording media) such as glossy paper and plain paper. In such cases, an image processing table that is required for image processing and control information for the printing apparatus may differ for each medium.
In view of this, print processing onto a medium that is desired by a user can be appropriately performed by setting an identifier according to each type of medium and identifying the type of medium to be used for printing. As a method for assigning an identifier to each medium type, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-300362 discloses that a paper identification number is assigned to paper set in a printer. Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-349150 discloses that an identifier is assigned to a paper cassette.
If identifiers are set according to types of media as with the technology disclosed in the above documents, identifiers are set by firmware in the printing apparatus, and identifiers are set by a printer driver in the information processing apparatus, thereby enabling management of the types of media in each of the apparatuses.
However, in the case of a printing system where an information processing apparatus and a printing apparatus are connected, it is necessary to commonly manage medium types in the information processing apparatus and the printing apparatus. For example, an identifier “1” is assigned to a certain medium type, and an identifier “2” is assigned to another medium type in the information processing apparatus and the printing apparatus. Accordingly, in the information processing apparatus and the printing apparatus, these medium types can be distinguished by achieving consistency of the medium types corresponding to the identifiers. Consequently, printing can be performed in the state where the medium type to which image processing executed in the information processing apparatus corresponds has consistency with the medium type to which print control executed in the printing apparatus corresponds, for example.
Here, consider a printing system including a plurality of information processing apparatuses and a plurality of printing apparatuses. In such a case, information for specifying medium types is held in both an information processing apparatus A and a printing apparatus A, for example. Further, similarly, information for specifying medium types is held in both an information processing apparatus B and a printing apparatus B.
However, in the case where the printing apparatus connected to the information processing apparatus is changed, such as the case where the printing apparatus B is connected to the information processing apparatus A, information indicating medium types managed with different methods is held in the apparatuses. If print processing is performed in such a case, the medium type to which image processing performed in the information processing apparatus corresponds and the medium type to which control by the printing apparatus corresponds may differ from each other, due to the medium types in the information processing apparatus and the printing apparatus lacking consistency. In this case, processing for different types of recording media will be performed in the image processing apparatus and the printing apparatus, and thus problems may arise with the printing results, such as differences in shade and blurring, for example.